Ink Lines

Chapter 35: Plan ahead

Huge chapter ahead! If you would like to skip to the Wei Ying part please feel free to head to the picture of Sizhui.

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Fingers lightly danced up and down his back, like the winds carrying a snowdrift when Huaisang surfaced from the depths of sleep.

He didn't move and experience made sure that his breathing remained in the mimicry of sleep, his mind coming back online. The blankets were heavy and smelled of the incense they only make in Qinghe, and beneath his cheek was hard muscle and a steady heartbeat combined with the quiescent strong power of a cultivator of high standing.

Part of Huaisang wanted to just pull the blankets up and ignore life, ignore what today meant, the ironic battle of it.

When he had come to Qinghe he had expected to die on his sword basically, not literally he hoped, but the idea was the same. He wasn't going to be leaving in anything less than a casket for his crimes and the big reveal that was going to expose so much filth and decay.

Instead, his brother already armed with some proof against the Elder behind this disaster and Lan Xichen's support, they had paved the way forward for Huaisang to completely expose the rotten mess of betrayal, murder and all the connections to the Wen.

In his vitriolic martyrdom, so sure he was going to be ignored, disbelieved or shut-down, Huaisang had sought to achieve maximum damage. None of it could hurt his brother or damage his position, not even politically. He was a victim and by extension their entire sect was one as well. All it took was a few traitors seeking power and money and the Nie name was going to be held in disrepute. But...it was nothing that his brother could weather with such a righteous reputation and the support of Gusu Lan.

So instead of mitigating the damage, Huaisang had taken the knife and slashed down the thin curtain hiding all the ugly truths and carved his way to what he had thought was his one goal, his true victory. He told them the entire story in all its gory detail complete with evidence in the forms of tapes, recordings and all his evidence over his father's murder taken from his rooms where he was staying, brought for this purpose.

SCD left with it and Huaisang had made sure it was out. He ruined himself and pinned the target on his enemies, weirdly pleased at his own destruction. It was done. It was finished. It was over.

The Jiang would be safe with this loud distraction, the Jin and Wen held in focus though this immense scandal. His brother would be safe now that the traitors had been exposed. Huaisang had nothing to lose and revenge to gain. Years of work after his father's death yes, but real work had come after Mingjue's attack. Wei Wuxian had helped him, but his war was coming to an end.

He outed the ones who had killed their father, he exposed Lady Jin's involvement and the abuse he suffered to keep the evidence on his enemies. All roads led back to the Wen and the Jin.

He expected his brother's rage and disdain. He expected one of teh disciples who had long hated him to finally murder him. He expected to be paraded as an evil born to their sect and vilified for his part in it all. For his hands were not lily white by any stretch of the imagination.

He had lied, cheated, cajoled and used others for his gain. He had given in to the Jin's demands, handed over some Nie funds, a scattering of open secrets, nothing to lose there. All crimes that his brother would not forgive.

And yet...

Rather than the worst he had expected, Nie Huaisang was being called a unsung hero.

The irony was bitter, confusing and it angered him no end that out of all of his excellent predictions, this one seemed dead wrong.

Far from vilifying him, Mingjue was upset not with him - over him.